Are You Alright?
by elfmaiden4legs
Summary: ****"Nobody's reading your website!" - Sherlock is deeply hurt by John's words in the mortuary during S2 E1 & Lesdrade follows to make sure the young Consulting Detective is alright!


**Are You Alright?**

"_Nobody's reading your website!"_

With this Detective Inspector Lestrade had noticed the young Consulting Detective's face fall as he'd taken note of his friend's biting words – it seemed to take a moment for the words to finally register, but when they did Lestrade could clearly see the slight widening of the slightly younger man's eyes, his mouth set into a stiff, thin line, the corners of his lips twitching slightly, and his head drooped barely perceptively – chin a little closer towards the ground.

Sherlock Holmes had never taken heed of anything anybody had said to him, unlike anybody else Lestrade had ever met in his life before he had honestly never cared what anyone had thought of him – until Doctor John Watson had arrived on the scene.

It had been Lestrade who'd first convinced Sherlock to set up his website 'The Science of Deduction' in the first place, as an outreach to the outside world. Sherlock had been lonely, struggling to communicate his brilliant ideas and Lestrade had thought that the website had been the perfect medium by which to communicate with the outside world.

Now he watched as Sherlock slowly backed away from the examination table and stalked slowly out of the mortuary.

So the DI aimed a disapproving look in John's direction – a look which to all intents and purposes remained unnoticed – and followed him out into the corridor.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be alright?" Sherlock responded, leaning heavily up against the wall as he spoke.

"You know you don't have to pretend you know. You're a great detective, I wouldn't think any the less of you if you were just a little more human."

Sherlock laughed – a slightly bitter tone.

"You were the one who first convinced me to set up that website Lestrade." He snapped. "What's the point if nobody's reading it? It's just a pointless waste of my time!"

"It's good for you." Lestrade sighed. "People need to understand that not everything's so black and white in this world… that website of yours, it injects some much needed colour into the mundane of this world… and it's not good for you to spend so much time locked inside your own mind!"

Suddenly with this however the door to the mortuary slammed shut behind both men, and as they turned, startled by the sudden noise it was to see Watson standing motionless and silent in the barricaded doorway. His expression clearly revealed to them both that he'd heard everything they'd said.

"I'm sorry if what I said upset you." He apologised, looking to Sherlock, but the slightly taller man with the mop of messy and unkempt black hair turned away from his friend, embarrassed by such an obvious display of emotion as his own humanity betrayed him, leaking through his carefully constructed façade.

"It didn't… you didn't… it doesn't matter." Sherlock faltered, avoiding his best friend's gaze.

Lestrade directed a meek smile in the young doctor's direction before turning to leave the two men to themselves for a bit. He'd done all he could do for now. Sometimes true friends just needed some time to themselves to settle their own differences – this wasn't his battle to fight – and as he aimed one final serious and lasting look in the young doctor's direction, instructing him to tread carefully on this one, the young man addressed him with a curt nod of the head indicating that he understood.

"I read it…" Watson confessed to his friend once the Detective Inspector had left and Sherlock looked back at him with dark, expressionless eyes.

Watson could tell by his friend's reaction that his words had cut him deeply. Sherlock always did his best to remain detached, emotionally independent of his companions and surroundings – but he was after all only human, and it was only when he'd been seriously hurt and wounded that he became completely unreadable. It was a defence mechanism he'd built up over several years, making him unreachable, and protected him from any further pain.

"I shouldn't have said what I said…"

"No!" Was Sherlock's only response to this as he turned and walked away, and Watson sighed as he followed. He could tell that it was going to take much more than a simple 'sorry' to make up for this one. Sherlock was the lord and master at giving people the silent treatment, and his sulks could go on for days.

As he followed slowly behind however he could only wonder how long his friend was going to make him suffer in silence this time, and could only hope that it wouldn't be too long…


End file.
